National Gallery, Etc.

 

It's good to be back!  There's a good feeling here of being out and about again, among everyone I think. And I'm feeling more free (of the experiences of the last two years with pandemic fears and restrictions) now that I am here.  At home - especially since I've been teaching remotely throughout the entire two years - I haven't felt a clear delineation between still being in full-on "covid mode" and moving back into normal mode.  (I hope I didn't just jinx myself somehow!).  Just for reference, I was here on Saturday, May 7; I'm now playing catch-up on my blog!

Trafalgar Square, just in front of the National Gallery, was very full today due to a celebration of Eid.

And, as usual, there was whimsy out front as well.

If I didn't restrain myself, this could be my longest post.  I love art history and paintings, and I took pictures of scores of pieces!  I'll start with one of my favorites; it is a painting I came across the first (and only other) time I was here.  It's of a 16th-century nobleman who is about to go on a journey.  Inside his cap is inscribed in Greek, "Alas, I desire too much."  Yeah, I can relate (not material things, but experience, travel, and knowledge).

I love looking through books of art history, but there is just nothing like being face-to-face with the actual paintings where you can really experience the size of them and can even see the brush strokes.  Below is Van Gogh's and then a close-up of it for a look at the brush strokes.

I shared a close up of the next painting in my recent blog about Greenwich because of the time piece pictured here of which there was an actual model in the Greenwich museum on time.  Now I'm showing the whole picture, but then I'll show another "zoom."  Look at the full painting first before scrolling down to the picture below it.

If you look at the painting from the top right you can see more clearly what is in the bottom center of the photo, a memento mori that's been somewhat disguised!

I'm actually going to stop there with paintings instead of including my favorite Rembrandts and da Vincis and Renoirs and Botticellias and more!  But don't think I'm not tempted to share them!

As I left to head towards the Exhibition Road area for more museums I stumbled across - and just about into - some sort of changing of the guard in front of the Horse Guards' Parade.  I went a bit out of my way in order to stop by the front of Westminster Abbey again, because I know there's a little hot dog stand there where I could just get some food really fast for not much money and for no wait time!  I was planning to go to the Natural History Museum and maybe pop briefly into the Victoria and Albert, but I ended up at the underground entrance to the V&A from the tube, so I figured I'd start there.

I was particularly tired and sore this day, so I don't have many pictures from inside the V&A, none worth posting at least, just a few for my own recall later.  I ended up only walking past the Natural History Museum because of how tired I was, but even the outside of the building is gorgeous!

This is basically directly across Kensington Gardens (which I always call "Hyde Park" since they are a seamless whole as far as I can tell) from my hotel.  "Just across Kensington Gardens is still a half-hour walk, but it seemed as easy and short to do that as to get back to a tube station, so, off I went.

Despite my tiredness, I'm glad I decided on the walk.  It took me past the Albert Memorial, which is quite something.  To get a sense of scale look at the people walking past.

This is directly across the street from the Royal Albert Hall, which was cool to see.  It's fun to make connections in my head about locations of places I've heard about for decades but haven't been to.

I found myself on the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk as I made my way across, which, given how much I love Diana made me pretty happy.

Kensington Palace, Diana's London home is in this park.  Here is the gate where so many flowers were laid in memory of her in September 1997.

William and Mary also lived here at one time, and the future Queen Victoria grew up here.

After going back to the hotel and getting dinner and whatever other details I needed to take care of, I decided to take a break that evening and do some reading in this park.  It's basically directly across the street from my hotel, and I hadn't been taking advantage of it.  I stuffed a pillow into a duffle bag I'd brought with me, and I laid down on the grass and read a book on my Kindle.  It was nice and relaxing!  I choose a nice spot kind of between Kensington Palace and the Round Pound in Kensington Gardens.